Royal Oak film series asks: Who stole American dream?

ROYAL OAK — The spring film series for the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights (MCHR) and Peace Action MI opens at 7 p.m. Tuesday with “HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream?” at St. John’s Episcopal Church,

11 Mile and Woodward, in Royal Oak.

The film by Frances Causey and Donald Goldmacher investigates the roots of the current economic crisis and what the directors see as an ongoing assault on working people in the United States.

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The 76-minute film — a New York Times critics pick — traces worldwide economic problems to a 1971 memo by future U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Lewis Powell. The six-page memo written for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for a big business makeover of government through corporate control of the media, academia, the pulpit, arts and sciences and the destruction of organized labor.

HEIST shows a crumbling structure of the U.S. economy as a result of four decades of deregulation, massive job outsourcing, and tax policies favoring corporations and wealthy elites.

The MCHR promotes awareness of human rights through education. Its spring film series continues at 7 p.m. Tuesdays at St. John’s with:

“Kill/Capture” on March 5. This PBS film goes beyond bin Laden, inside the military’s extraordinary, secret campaign to take out thousands of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. Concerns raised are about whether this campaign is doing more harm than good and what happens if intelligence is bad?

”We Are Not Ghosts Detroiters” on March 12. This film is about reinventing the Motor City as a self-sustaining city in a post-industrial world. The film shows Detroiters remaking their city with vision through community businesses, place-based schools and thriving urban gardens.

”Climate of Doubt” on March 19. This film goes inside the organizations that fought the scientific establishment, environmental groups and lawmakers to shift the direction of debate on climate issues and redefine the politics of global warming.

For more information on the coalition and film series, go to www.mchr.org.